FSU sorority gives back to local students

Posted by Catherine Sweeney on September 11th, 2019

Alpha Sigma Tau was able to collect more than 50 packs of crayons, 60 packs of markers and 50 packs of colored pencils for local students. They will be delivered to Riverview Elementary School later this week. (Pioneer file photo)

BIG RAPIDS — As part of their September service project, a Ferris State University sorority, Alpha Sigma Tau, is giving back to elementary students in the community by donating school supplies.

The project, Coloring the Classroom, wrapped up Monday, Sept. 9, with plans to bring the supplies to Riverview Elementary School by the end of the week.

Stacey Jacobs, philanthropy chair for the sorority, said the idea for Coloring the Classroom came to her when she was buying her own supplies for school.

“Everything was just so much more expensive than it should be,” she said. “Then I thought, ‘This is something we can do to make a difference.'”

Alpha Sigma Tau was able to collect more than 50 packs of crayons, 60 packs of markers and 50 packs of colored pencils for Riverview students.

“It’s so easy for us to just pick up a pack of crayons when we go to the store, but it makes such a big difference to kids,” Jacobs said.

In addition to the supplies brought in by Alpha Sigma Tau members, Jacobs said other campus organizations also pitched in to provide for local kids.

“We received donations from multiple Greek organizations on campus, which was amazing because we love seeing Greek unity,” she said.

In previous years, Alpha Sigma Tau has done larger service projects throughout the year, but Jacobs decided to switch things up by implementing additional monthly projects.

“The projects give us something fun to do, and it’s important for us as an organization to be involved in the community,” she said.

While this was Alpha Sigma Tau’s first year doing the service project, Jacobs said she hopes to make it a tradition and has plans to expand the amount of donations in the future.

“I’d say we met our goal with it being the first year, but I would like to see the project get bigger and bigger,” she said. “There’s other elementary schools in the area, so it would be cool if we could collect the amount of supplies we did for Riverview for all of them.”